Welcome back to Seamus Popery. I'm Joe Heschmire, and it's first snowfall of the year here in Kansas City and a perfect time to kind of enter into the Advent season and talk about the secret meaning of Advent. Now, I realize that sounds completely clickbady. How in the world could there be a secret meaning of a well-known liturgical season? But I think if you asked ordinary Catholics, they would either, one, have no

real idea what Advent is about in the first place, or two, if they have a general idea, they

at least only have the Christmas preparation sense of it. They don't know that Advent is also

apocalyptic. So, first things first, happy New Year's.

This is, as you're going to understand fittingly,

the beginning of the liturgical year as Catholics.

Our liturgical cycle begins the first Sunday of Advent.

So you're a couple days in if you're watching this on Tuesday.

I want to talk about two things.

First, the general sense that Advent is kind of a lost season.

And second, that even for those for whom it's not a lost season completely,

we overlook an important dimension of Advent that is important for making sense of what's happening liturgically.

On the idea of Advent being a lost season, I think this is pretty straightforward.

Now, I don't want to pick on them because, as I was reading about it, I realized it was two

high school students, but I was reading a debate in a Jesuit high school newspaper

between two students about when the Advent season, or excuse me, when the

Christmas season begins. And one side said after Halloween and the other said December 1st.

And now this is one of those times where the church actually has a really clear answer to this,

it's December 25th. So like I said, my point here is not to like bash a couple high school students

for not knowing the ins and outs of the liturgical calendar. My point here is rather to suggest that

they're totally normal, that ordinary people, ordinary Christians, ordinary Catholics

don't know when Christmas is.

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